Pueblo Nuevo and Buenos Aires I.Recommiendations

4 55, VILLAGES OF PUEBLO NUEVO AND BUENOS AIRES 0 .:..Province of Veraguas, Panama SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ANTHROPO- LOGICAL CUARACTLRISTICS I.RECOMMIENDATIONS AND POTENTIAL HYDROELECTRIC ENERGY USES FINAL REP.ORT. Prepared f or AID/PANAMA 4 CONTR-t'CT NO. AID-525-015T . - . ovember, 1981 Sby RUR P.UALDEVELOPME'NT SYSTE.S r ii L~~T 1'C NOA1N .C ,R U ,I C ~j'. r Streov-, N TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I VILLAGE OF PUEBLO NUEVO Section Title Page No. A DESCRIPTION AND DATA 3 1. General Characteristics and Location 3 2. Socio-Economic Character istics 8 3. Evaluation of Municipal Institutions 10 4. Socio-Anthropological Characteristics 15 5. Economic Characteristics 18 B RECOMMENDATIONS AND POTENTIAL HYDROELECTRIC ENERGY USES 33 PART II VILLAGE OF BUENOS AIRES A DESCRIPTION AND DATA 36 1. General Characteristics 36 2. Socio-Political Character istics 43 3. Evaluation of Municipal Institutions 48 4. Socio-Anthropological Characteristics 61 5. Economic Characteristics 65 B RECOMMENDATIONS AND POTENTIAL HYDROELECTRIC ENERGY USES 71 i APPENDICES APPENDIX A LIST OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS FOR A-i PUEBLO NUEVO AND BUENOS AIRES B LIST OF VILLAGES' RESIDENTS B-I INTERVIEWED LIST OF GOVERNMENT OF PANAMA AND B-3 DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS' PERSONNEL INTERVIEWED C COMPOSICION DE LOS SECTORES PRIMARIO, C-I SECUNDARIO Y TERCIARIO, POR RAMA DE ACTIVIDAD ECONOMICA (GRANDES SECTORES ECONOMICOS) D REFORESTATION PROJECT PERSONNEL D-i E PLAN DE CAMINOS PARA AREA INDIGENA E-1 DE VERAGUAS ±i INTRODTTrTIO! ' Throughout the second half of August, 1981, personnel from Rural Development Systems (RES) divisiun of International Economics Group, Inc. (IEG) visited and studied two isolated villages (Pueblo Nuevo and Buenos Aires) of the Veraguas Province, Re public of Panama. The studies conducted had the twofold objective of (l) estab lishing an information baseline to determine the level of dev elopment if both places and (2) determining potential uses of newly introduced hydroelectric energy whose impact on presently existing conditions would be evaluated by future studies. In order to accomplish these objectives, the following tasks were performed: 1. Survey of social, economic and anthropological char acteristics of these areas by interviewing villages' inhabitants. 2. Interviews of 1high level and field personnel of govern ment and other aqencies actively working in or connected with support tasks in either or both villages. 3. Extensive review of pertinent literature. Results of findings and recommenCations for possible future action are submitted in this.report, as follows: Part I (Pueblo Nuevo); Part II (Buenos Aires). Each village study is divided into Section A (Baseline Information) and Section B (Recommen dations and Potential Hydroelectric Energy'/ uses). -/Hydroelectric energy plants are being installed in both villages. 2 SECTION I VILLAGE OF PUEBLO NUEVO A. DESCRIPTION AND DATA 1. General Characteristics and Location Pueblo Nuevo is a remote Panamanian village located at Long. W. 80' and Lat. N. 8'321 in the mountain range of the Corregimiento Chitra, District of Calobre. Province of Vera guas. Its averace elevation is between 800 and 850 meter's above sea level. The climate is tropical and consequently hot and humid, althoagh somewhat temperated by cooling breezes common at high altitudes. Over the last twenty years, annual rainfall has averaged (arithmetic mean) 3,927.9 mm, with one year at 1,679 mm and other years over 5,000 mm.- Pueblo Nuevo's location in the traditionally forgotten mountain range has kept it in isolation from the outside world. Recent efforts to better integrate this area as well as others into the main stream of national life have included a good deal of attention to the development of infrastructure. Essential tasks to accomplish this process of integration arid development have resulted in the promotion of the following pro jects: I/See IRE's tabulsations for rainfall data registered at Loma Liana fv-omr 1960 Lo 1975. T[RIM., Proyecto c-ohdeetro for Pueblo :uevn. 3 7 ~t g(; '<1 H)-H. .- H U)~I ro Q) 0 . W 0 -H 0) 0 N4 ) r H H D 44i (D~lC 0d)f tt~ 0 Q~ 0 4 . U~ E- r P4 z Hz N -d z 00 A(1 U)H 0 0 4 ~ % t% 0, . u~~~~0 Qj ~ ~ ~ .5 I rd .I o "iclo Basico (School, Grades 1-9) o Hydroelectric Plant, 80 KW o Plans to imurove an existir.: and dangerous dirt road o Health Center o Reforestation Program o Initial work to create a production cooperative to improve m.arketing conditions for coffee, the only significant cash crop in this area. o Fish Pond Each of these projects will be discussed at length later in this section. What is meaningful at this point is to con sider the integrated planning and development of such a com munity through the synchronage operation of infrastructural components. Clearly, at this stage, there are important ingredients for the development of this area. The above-listed projects and programs are geared to generate forward linkages. However, major emphasis on intangible inputs as part of the development scheme shculd also be considered. At that point, it will be possible to attract higher levels of attention and create in centives for local residents to move towards autonomy and use initiative to attain better levels of economiz activity. Sug gestions for this possibility are submitted in Section I-B, Origin of the Settlement. The community of Pueblo Nuevo has existed for at least 80 years, according to Placido Urriola, 5 one of its oldest inhabitants. Sr. Urriola's grandfather, a Spanish immigrant, was one of the pioneer settlers of this area in the 1880's. Before that time, the land was part of the Guaymi Reserva Indigena. "Bajo La Palma Coco," an area today known as "Abajo" (below) or "de Abajo" (from below) was the first area settled. Pueblo Nuevo and Piedras Gordas, just above and somewhat higher on the mountain slope, followed in the settlement process early in this century. Today, the three areas are comunally called "Pueblo Nuevo," yet within the community the three areas, or neighborhoods, are differentiated by their respective names, i.e., Pueblo Nuevo, Piedras Gordas, and "Abajo." This report includes information on Piedras Gordas and Pueblo Nuevo since thc.se are the areas which have consolidated into one single physical village and are the recipients of electricity generated by the AID/IHRE small hydroelectric project. Piedras Gordas encompasses 14 families; Pueblo Nuevo 26; and "Abajo" 10. The 1880's was the decade of original settlement for the village. Along with Silvestre Rodriguez, the families of Rafael Saturno, Jose de los Santos Rodriguez, Federico de la Cruz and Enrique de Arcia moved into the area. Descendents of these families along with newer arrivals constitute the growing pop ulation, that despite its conditions of poverty, has retained a good number of inhabitants. Co-mparisons of census data from 6 1970 and the present show an increase of over 30 percent in the number of dwelling units.. The 1970 National Census shows 19 houses and 71 inhabitants for Pueblo Nuevo section of the area, while today the.re are 26 dwelling units and a significant increase of inhabitants in the same area. Obse vations and a survey of the area revealed a socio economic level of development that can be classified as some what above minimum subsistence, i.e. , the population produces enough to feed itself and also has monetary revenues result ing from the sale of coffee. Coffee production as well as the cultivation of other agri cultural products and cattle raising constitute the simple economy of tne area. Land tenure, real estate, and factors of production administration occur under "private property" concepts. This is different from what occurs wit, the inhabi. tants of the other area under s-udy, i.e., the Village of Buenos Aires, where much of the production and land tenure occurs under traditional Indian systems of communal ownership. 7 2. Sn-io-Tonomic Chracteristics a. Population and Popilation Concentration The 50 dwelling units that make up the community of Pueblo Nuevo are spread over an irregular, elongated area of approximately .20 square kilometers or 200,000 square meters. Map I-A delineates the distribution of buildings (houses, school, etc.) in that area. Most of the village dwellers have small parcels of land attached to their houses. In addition, most inhabi tants defacto own and cultivate other parcels of land re moved from the immediate proximity of the village, often as far away as two to three hours by foot. There is al most complete lack of transportation facilities in terms of both vehicles and roads. The only motor vehicle trans portation in the area is the unscheduled trips of Govern ment and donor agencies, such as AID, on official business, that travel the distance from Pueblo Nuevo to the Inter- American Highway and often to Santiago and the City of Panama. Otherwise, very few motor vehicles, if not more than one (owned by a village resident),cover that distance. Despite its still humble condition of development, Pueblo Nuevo has the potential for becoming an important center of interaction for inhaLitants of adjacent areas. 8 This iq due to the fact that considerable infrastructural elements such as the Ciclo Basico (attended by children from areas as distant as three hours away by foot), the medical unit, electricity, and the road that will probably be improved in the relatively near future, are planned or already exist. Pueblo Nuevo is an old settlement and has resident stability that will be reinforced by better infrastructure. The question thaL remains is how to accelerate the creation of employment sources, increase productivity, and promote production to make this community more af fluent as expeditiously as possible.

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